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VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY 



LECTURE BY 



SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 




WHY A HINDD IS A YEGETARIAN 



Delivered before The Vegetarian Society, New York, 
March 22, 1898. 



Published by the Vedanta Society 

NEW YORK 



PRICE 10 CENTS 

Copyright, 1900, by Swami Abhedananda, new york 



58832 



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" Who can be more cruel and selfish than he who increases the flesh of his 
body by eating the flesh of innocent animals." — Mahabharata. 

" Those who desire to possess good memory, beauty, long 1 life with perfect 
health, and physical, moral and spiritual strength, should abstain from animal 
food." — Ibid. 

" Highest virtue consists in the non-killing of animals."— Ibid. 



WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 

Eminent physicians and dietetic reformers of the 
present day are deeply interested in solving the great 
problem of wholesome food for human beings, and in 
introducing food reform in Western countries. 
Through their efforts thoughtful Americans are be- 
ginning to know something of the healthful effects of 
vegetarian diet, and to question whether they shall 
become vegetarians. This question has never been 
discussed in the West with so much earnestness as 
now. Among the ancient Greek philosophers we find 
strong advocates of vegetarianism in Pythagoras, 
Plato, Socrates, Seneca, Plutarch, Tertullian, Por- 
phyry and others; but the vast majority of Western 
people regard vegetarians with contempt and ridicule. 
In India this problem was solved by the Hindu phi- 
losophers long before Pythagoras was born, and in 
their writings we find logical and scientific arguments 
against the killing of animals and the eating of animal 
flesh. Many historians and Oriental scholars are of 
opinion that Pythagoras owed his ideas regarding 



2 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

a vegetable diet to the Hindu philosophers, who from 
prehistoric times had advocated and practised a strictly 
vegetarian diet. 

India is the only country in the world where vege- 
tarianism has prevailed for centuries among the vast 
majority of people. The Hindus were the first nation 
in the world who understood the fundamental prin- 
ciples of the vegetarian theory. It was from the 
Hindus that other nations, such as the Chinese, Jap- 
anese, Thibetans, Siamese, Burmese, Ceylonese and 
Persians became impressed with the idea that the 
slaughter of animals for food is cruel, inhuman and 
wicked. The greatest thinkers and sages of ancient 
India gave arguments in support of vegetarianism 
from different standpoints, such as physical health; 
the physiological structure of our organs; the chemi- 
cal analysis of food; and the moral and spiritual ideals 
of life. Native doctors and physicians in India do not 
approve of animal food and agree generally with 
many Western doctors that animal flesh is one of the 
main causes of such diseases as dyspepsia, gout, con- 
sumption and nervous disorders. Hindu physicians 
argue that animals fattened for slaughter are more or 
less diseased on account of their unnatural mode of 
living and the unnatural food which they are forced 
to eat; that the germs of various diseases are intro- 
duced into the human system and that parasites come 
into the human body through the medium of animal 
flesh. They further assert that all flesh, being a prod- 
uct of nutrition, contains some refuse matter and im- 
purity, because their elimination is suddenly arrested 



WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 3 

by the slaughter of the animal. Some of these refuse 
materials are intensely poisonous, especially creatin. 
Animal flesh enriches the blood with unnecessary 
-fibrin, and this produces unnatural heat in the system 
and in turn is the cause of unusual activity and rest- 
lessness, ultimately leading to the nervous debility 
which afflicts many meat eaters. Constant use of meat 
increases the action of the heart and brings premature 
loss of vital forces. Physiologists and comparative 
anatomists like Sir Everard Home have shown from 
the structure of the teeth, stomach, alimentary canal, 
the microscopic human blood-corpuscles and the di- 
gestive processes that man is by nature more related 
to frugivorous animals than to the carnivora. 

From the chemical analysis of different vegetables, 
cereals, fruits, nuts, etc., and the flesh of different 
animals, and from the comparison of the constituent 
properties of vegetables with those of animal flesh, it 
can be shown that everything necessary for the growth 
of the muscles, for the strength of the nerves, and for 
the nourishment of the whole body can easily be ob- 
tained from the vegetable kingdom. As from animal 
food are obtained the proteids, fats and mineral matter, j 
which are the principal factors in the nourishment 
and healthy growth of the body, so from the vegetable \ 
world these elements are supplied in rich abundance, 
and in addition to these the carbohydrates (starch and 
sugar), which cannot be found in animal food. This 
being the fact the question arises, why do we eat ani- 
mal flesh ? Is it for nourishment ? No. The same 
nourishment can be obtained from vegetables, cereals 



4 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

, and pulses. Is it for health that we eat meat ? No ; 
because vegetarians as a class are healthier than the 
majority of meat eaters. Why, then, is meat eaten ? 
Because of the habit transmitted from generation to 
generation, and because of superstition, prejudice and 
ignorance. 

/ In ancient times when agriculture was unknown, 
/people lived upon fruits, nuts and other vegetable 
/ products which they found in abundance. But when 
1 the struggle for existence, which is so strongly mani- 
fested in the animal kingdom, became more difficult 
on account of the scarcity of fruits and nuts, they lived 
upon whatever they found around them. In that 
struggle the question of existence must precede the 
question of food. The savage tribes who do not know 
anything about agriculture and have not proper fruits 
and nuts, live chiefly upon wild animals, birds, reptiles 
and insects. Thus began the eating of flesh by man. 
Some people argue that flesh is the natural food of 
man, but this is not so. The meat-eating habit was 
formed through the force of necessity, and was handed 
down from father to son. Most people in civilized 
countries learn to live on animal flesh from their in- 
fancy, their parents teaching them by their example. 
They thus grow to think that they can hardly live 
without a diet of animal flesh. Some savage tribes 
became cannibals when they could not procure enough 
meat of wild animals. Shall the habits of cannibals 
signify that human flesh is the natural food of man ? 
In Australia the aborigines live on loathsome worms 
and reptiles. In India there is a class of aboriginal 



WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 5 

hill-tribes who eat poisonous snakes with great relish. 
Shall we say that these are the natural' food for man ? 
A man can eat anything with the help of cookery. But 
shall it be considered that man is naturally as om- 
nivorous as a pig ? The cows at Cape Cod eat the - 
refuse of fish; horses can be taught to eat beef; bears 
can be trained to smoke tobacco ; monkeys easily 
learn to drink tea, coffee and wine. Will such arti- 
ficially acquired habits supply the arguments for man's 
eating flesh ? Certainly not. The natural food of 
man is not animal flesh, but vegetables, fruits, nuts, 
cereals, etc., which grow spontaneously on this earth. 

When Hindu boys and girls go to school and read 
their first lessons they learn the highest humanitarian 
principles, and as they grow older they are kind tow- 
ard all living creatures. They are taught: "Be kind 
to lower animals. Do not kill them for your food, 
because the natural food of man is not an animal. " 
I learned in the first book of Sanskrit: "When enough 
of nourishment can easily be obtained from that which 
grows spontaneously on the earth, who will commit 
such a great sin as to kill animals for filling his 
stomach and deriving a little pleasure of taste ? " 
" Compare the eater with the animal that is eaten. The 
one has pleasure which lasts for a few seconds, and the 
other is deprived of all the pleasures of life." Seneca 
expressed a similar idea when he said : u Vegetables 
are sufficient food for the stomach into which we now 
stuff valuable lives." 

It is extremely difficult for people in the West to 
realize why it is sinful to kill animals for food or for 



6 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

pleasure. Their religion stands like a great stumbling- 
block in the way of their understanding. It teaches 
that the lower animals have no soul, no mind, no feel- 
ings ; that they have been created for the food of hu- 
man beings, and the duty of man is to eat what the 
merciful Lord has created for his sustenance and thank 
Him in return. This is the reason that so many ani- 
mals are killed for Thanksgiving and Christmas days 
in Christian countries, as though the merciful Lord 
would not accept prayers unless some of His creatures 
are killed and eaten. A minister of a high church in 
London was present when I was talking about vege- 
tarianism, and said to my friend : " Do not listen to 
these ideas; our Scriptures say they are the doctrine 
of devils," referring to the passage in the New Testa- 
ment, " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in 
the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving " 
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; . . . 
commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath 
created to be received with thanksgiving of them 
which believe and know the truth. For every crea- 
ture of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it 
be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by 
the word of 'God and prayer" (I. Timothy, iv, I, 3, 
4, 5). How is it possible for people who believe in 
such sayings as the word of God to think that the 
killing of animals for food is sinful? As it is impossi- 
ble for a Christian believer in this teaching to think 
that the slaughter of animals for food is sinful, so it is 
impossible for a Hindu to believe that the lower ani- 
mals are created for this use bv a merciful Lord. The 






WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 7 

idea that animals were created for food for man is en- 
tirely Semitic in its origin. Such a doctrine is horrible 
to the Hindus, because their religion does not teach 
that this world was created out of nothing by an extra- 
cosmic personal God sitting on a throne somewhere 
in the heavens and commanding men to eat animals 
whom He created for this purpose. 

The Hindu religion with all its various phases, such 
as the religion of the Vedas (which is erroneously 
called Brahminism), Buddhism and Jainism, is based 
upon the one fundamental principle, — the evolution of 
man from lower animals. It teaches that one life 
principle is manifesting in various forms of the min- 
eral, vegetable and animal kingdoms; that all are linked 
together by a mighty chain of evolution ; and that from 
the minutest protoplasm to the highest man, each 
stage of life differs from another not in kind, but in 
degree. The religion of the Hindus denies entirely 
that the lower animals are without mind, soul and 
feeling; and teaches that life and mind are manifested 
simultaneously. Wherever there is life there is the 
manifestation of the cosmic mind, the difference being 
in the degree of manifestation. The least expression 
is in the mineral, it is a little higher in the vegetable, 
and still higher in the animal kingdom. Even a uni- 
cellular amoeba has mind. It feels pain and tries to 
avoid that sensation. Advanced scientists of modern 
times do not deny this. Prof. Le Conte expresses 
this idea most forcibly in some of his lectures. As we 
rise in the animal kingdom we find the expression of 
the same life and mind in and through highly de- 



8 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

veloped animal bodies; and ultimately, through the 
most individualized and complex organism of the hu- 
man body. Each one of these animals possesses a 
soul, has individuality and the sense of "I," can feel 
pleasure and pain, has fear of death and struggles to 
live. The germ of life in each one of these will gradu- 
ally pass through the various stages of evolution and 
ultimately appear in a human form. Therefore, the 
religion, philosophy and Scriptures of the Hindus 
teach that as life is dear to us, so is it dear to the 
lower animals ; as we do not wish to be killed, so they 
too shrink from death. " Do not kill any animal for 
pleasure, see harmony in nature and lend a helping 
hand to all living creatures," say the Hindu Scriptures. 
The earliest writings of the Hindus, I mean the Vedas, 
teach : " Ma himsyat sarva bhutani," that is, " Do not 
kill any living creature either for food or for pleas- 
ure." 

The great epic of the Hindus, the Ramayana, or the 
exploits of Rama, teaches that we should treat lower 
animals as our brothers, and describes their value in 
the economy of nature in the most poetic and dra- 
matic way. It is said that Rama, the great Incarnation 
of God in flesh and blood on earth, fought with the 
king of demons in order to rescue Sita, his devoted 
wife, who was captured by the demoniac King of 
Ceylon. His huge army consisted of all kinds of ani- 
mals. The ape, Hanuman, the greatest of organized 
life beneath man in the scale of evolution, was the com- 
mander-in-chief. The bear is described as the prime 
minister, and other animals as soldiers. The whole 



WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 9 

story is written in such a masterly manner that who- 
ever reads it can never be unkind or cruel to any ani- 
mal, not to speak of killing it for food. 

Western people have the mistaken impression that 
Buddha was the reformer who introduced vegetarian- 
ism amongst the Hindus. This is an error. Buddha 
merely popularized the doctrine of non-killing taught 
by the Vedas, which was practised at that time by 
only a limited class of Hindu sages ; he also protested 
against animal sacrifices performed by the priests. 
The priests sacrificed animals not for the purpose of 
eating flesh, but for propitiating the Devas or bright 
spirits, through whose mercy they thought they would 
gain higher powers and conquer their enemies. 

Some people say that in the economy of nature the 
struggle for existence demands that one animal shall 
live upon another,, as birds of prey live upon other 
birds, as carnivora live upon other animals; and that 
we are therefore perfectly justified to live upon ani- 
mal flesh. It is true that in nature we find the ex- 
pression of such a law. It is a law that governs the 
lower animal nature. We may call it a brutal law r . 
But there are other laws which govern our better na- 
ture. These are moral and spiritual laws which do 
not express themselves in low T er animals but in human 
beings alone. If we do not recognize these higher 
laws we shall never rise above the animal plane. Man 
stands at the head of the animal kingdom not because 
he possesses in a highly developed form the same 
qualities that the lower animals have, but because 
he is capable of subduing the animal nature by the 



IO VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

moral and spiritual. A man lacking this moral and 
spiritual nature is in no way better than the lowest 
order of brutes. Human beings have the power of 
degrading themselves to the lowest animal plane as 
well as of raising themselves to the highest plane of 
spiritual enlightenment. They can manifest per- 
fectly their divine nature. In short, they can live on 
earth as embodiments of all good. The same human 
being may carry destruction, havoc, disharmony, and 
inhuman cruelty wherever he goes, or he may bring 
help, good-will, peace, love and blessings. The same 
energy when guided by animal nature creates havoc 
and becomes diabolical ; when directed by higher na- 
ture and love it brings happiness to all. 

Think of the moral degeneration of the slaughter- 
house butchers. The continuous contact with 
slaughter blunts their higher feelings and at last makes 
them brutal. They do not hesitate to drive the 
same knives with which they kill helpless beasts into 
the hearts of their fellow-men. Chicago has the larg- 
est slaughter-houses in the world. Many thousands 
of' animals are killed there every month by trained 
butchers. Most of the murderers in Chicago come 
from the butcher class. Who is responsible for their 
moral degeneration and for the crimes committed by 
them ? Do the meat eaters ever think of this phase 
of flesh eating ? They neither like to hear such facts 
nor to think of them, because it shocks their sensi- 
tive feelings. They want to close their eyes and ears 
to such sights and sounds. But the truth is that 
meat eaters are responsible. They are indirectly the 



WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. II 

causes of all the wicked deeds done by those butchers ; 
they are the causes of their moral degeneration. If 
there be no meat eater, there will be no butcher. A 
refined woman would shudder at seeing a red-handed 
butcher, but she should remember that she must 
share the responsibility of brutalizing and degrading 
him. If she killed the animals by her own hands, for 
her own food, it would be better, for this would save 
another from becoming an inhuman slayer for her. In 
every country butchers are considered as heartless and 
feelingless. In India they are debarred from the so- 
ciety of gentlemen, and the Hindus think that there is 
no stronger curse than to call a man a butcher. In the 
United States in some commonwealths no man con- 
nected with this trade is allowed to sit in a jury for try- 
ing a murder case, because it is recognized that the 
mind, feelings and whole moral nature become blunted 
by association with the slaughter of animals. If the 
process of furnishing flesh from the slaughter-house to 
the kitchen were remembered w T hen sitting at table 
with a savory piece of steak before them, I dare say 
two-thirds of the meat eaters w T ho have any feeling at 
all would give up meat eating without delay. A young 
American of my acquaintance who visited the 
slaughter-houses in Chicago was so deeply impressed 
by the brutality, cruelty and inhuman atmosphere of 
the place that he never touched any meat from that 
day. No individual who eats animal flesh can avoid 
moral responsibility. He must necessarily take a share 
in the cause of the moral degeneration of his breth- 
ren. 



12 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY, 

Various objections have been raised by meat eaters 
against vegetarianism. Some say if animals are not 
used for food they will overrun the earth. The same ar- 
gument applies to animals which are not eaten, such as 
horses, donkeys, dogs, cats and rats, as to sheep, cat- 
tle, pigs and poultry. In India the Hindus do not kill 
cows, but they are not overrun by them. The Hindus 
did not have any slaughter-houses until the British 
Government established them. In the states that are 
still governed by the Hindu Rajas the wild animals 
and birds are protected by strict laws. But these 
states are not overrun by wild animals, nor are the 
inhabitants driven out by them. 

An American who recently made a short visit to 
India, Dr. J. H. Barrows, formerly of Chicago, said 
in a lecture in New York that he saw in the streets of 
Benares some oxen lean and poor as compared with 
those which are fattened for the Chicago slaughter- 
houses. His heart melted with kindness and pity at 
the sight, and he said it is much more kind to kill cattle 
for food than to allow them to live half-fed or ill-fed. 
What a curious notion of kindness is this ! Dr. Bar- 
rows also said that if we do not eat fish the seas and 
oceans will soon become a solid mass of fish. Any ef- 
forts of man to keep down the number of fishes would 
be vain without the operation of nature's laws, which 
regulate production and preserve a proper ratio. But 
this sort of statement and argument is not uncom- 
mon from friends of the flesh-eating habit. Others 
hold that unless they eat animal flesh they will be weak 
and useless for work and will lack bravery and cour- 



WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 13 

age. This is a great mistake. You have heard of the 
Hindu Sikh soldiers in India, who are the bravest and 
strongest fighters in the British army. They never 
turn their back to an enemy in the battle-field. One 
Sikh soldier can stand against three beef-eaters in 
hand-to-hand fight. But these soldiers never touch 
meat, nor fish, never drink wine, nor smoke tobacco. 
They are strict vegetarians. Millions of Scotchmen 
have become healthy, strong, hardy and intellectual 
while living on oatmeal. In a running race of seven 
athletes in Germany, amongst whom there was one 
vegetarian, it was shown that a vegetarian can win 
over meat eaters even in athletic sports. A vege- 
tarian diet gives great endurance and makes one even- 
tempered. People generally mistake a ferocious, rest- 
less and rash temper for courage and strength. These 
say that a tiger or a wolf is stronger than a horse, a 
buffalo or an elephant. They make ferocious nature 
the standard of strength. It is true that a tiger can 
kill a horse, but has he the muscular strength which 
enables a horse to draw a heavy load a long distance ? 
A tiger can kill an elephant, but can he lift a cannon 
weighing hundreds of pounds ? Ferocity is one thing 
and muscular strength is another; we ought to dis- 
tinguish the one from the other. The source of strength 
lies in the vegetable kingdom and not in flesh and 
blood. If flesh eating be the condition of physical 
strength, why do meat eaters prefer the flesh of 
herbivorous animals and not that of the carnivora ? 
Some meat eaters say that animal flesh has a large 
quantity of vegetable energy concentrated in a small 



14 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

compass. If that be their reason for the meat-eating 
habit, they ought to live on the flesh of carnivorous 
animals and birds, such as tigers, wolves, vultures and 
hawks. 

As in the animal kingdom the carnivora are more 
restless than the herbivora, so amongst men we find 
that meat eaters are more restless and less self-con- 
trolled than vegetarians. As a peaceful, well-poised 
and self-controlled nature is the first sign of spiritual 
progress, it is plain that animal food is not the most 
helpful diet for spiritual development. It is for this 
reason that meat eaters find it so difficult to concen- 
trate their minds on one particular object. It is impos- 
sible for them to meditate on their spiritual and divine 
nature. Therefore the Hindus, who understand the 
secret of spirituality, object to meat eating. The Hin- 
dus who devote their whole life and mental energy to 
the attainment of spiritual perfection are called Yogis. 
According to them the non-killing of animals is one 
of the conditions of spiritual progress, and killing any 
animal, either for food or pleasure, is a great stum- 
bling-block in the path of spirituality. Again, they 
classify the killing or injuring of animals in three divi- 
sions, — " committed," " caused," and " approved of." 
For instance, I may kill an animal myself ; this will be, 
according to the Yogis, " committed." Secondly, I 
may cause another to kill ; and thirdly, I may approve 
of the killing committed by another person, as by buy- 
ing the flesh from a butcher. According to a Yogi, 
he who wishes to practise non-killing must not kill; 
must not cause another to kill; and must not approve 



WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 15 

of the killing done by another. When this non-killing 
or non-injuring is perfectly established in a Yogi, he 
receives injury from none, not even from tigers nor 
from snakes. Tigers and snakes injure us because we 
have the feeling of injuring them. In fact the Yogis 
in India have carried the golden rule to its extreme 
and applied it to lower animals even, thus succeeding 
in making it a universal law. In the presence of Yogis 
ferocious animals become peaceful and render them 
great service. Such a state is idealized in the images 
and pictures of the greatest men and women Yogis in 
ancient India. The great Yogi Siva has most venom- 
ous snakes as ornaments on his neck, head and body. 
The great woman Yogi Durga stands on the back of 
ferocious tigers and lions. Truly speaking such Yogis 
have no enemies in the world. 

Another reason why a spiritually advanced Hindu 
does not like meat, is that eating flesh and drinking 
wine go hand in hand. It is a well-known fact that 
many people acquire the habit of drunkenness in try- 
ing to digest animal food with the help of liquors ; and 
as drinking leads to all sorts of other vices, a Hindu 
believes that one can most easily be free from those 
vices by being a vegetarian. The Hindus are strongly 
opposed to drinking wines or liquors. If a high-caste 
Hindu gentleman should go to a saloon or should 
drink publicly, he would lose caste. Hindu women 
do not touch wine. In Hindu society no one can find 
a drunken woman, as one finds in the streets of cities 
in Western countries. The Hindus allowed no saloon 
in large cities; but now, under the demoralizing in- 



1 6 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

fluence of the liquor trade of the British Government, 
one finds hundreds of saloons in some cities. Hindus 
cannot understand how a civilized nation can approve 
of liquor trade and opium trade; can seek to demoral- 
ize sober people by opening saloons in villages, and 
inducing the poor laboring classes to acquire habits 
of drunkenness by offering them strong liquors at no 
cost. Many people have asked me again and again 
whether the Hindus have become more moral under 
the British rule. They would not ask such questions if 
they knew the demoralizing effects of liquor trade and 
opium trade in India, and also if they remembered that 
wherever a Christian missionary goes, a bottle of 
brandy or whiskey soon follows him. The vegetarian 
Hindus do not touch wine, even in the form of a medi- 
cine. 

Lastly, a Hindu is a vegetarian from the standpoint 
of love. Love means the expression of oneness. The 
Hindus love lower animals because of oneness. Their 
ideal is to realize that one spiritual Being is manifest- 
ing through all living creatures. The divine Spirit 
which is dwelling within us and illuminating our inner 
nature with the light of intelligence and conscious- 
ness is also dwelling in lower animals. Their ideal is 
not a vague, indefinite and meaningless word, such as 
" brotherhood." They wish to realize that we are one 
in Spirit with the lower animals, one with every living 
creature. Their religion teaches : " Love every living 
creature as thy Self," because the same Self or Spirit 
is in all. " Realize the Self or Spirit within you; then 
you shall be able to see the same Spirit everywhere. 



/ 
WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 1 7 

He who realizes the one universal Spirit everywhere, 
cannot kill Spirit by Spirit/' He becomes truly unsel- 
fish. He is ever ready to help all. Whenever we kill any 
animal tor our food or pleasure we are selfish. It is on 
account of extreme selfishness that we do not recog- 
nize the rights of other animals and that we try to 
. not' ish, nay, even to amuse ourselves, by killing in- 
nocent creatures or by injuring them, or by depriving 
them of their rights. This kind of selfishness is the 
mother of all evil thoughts and wicked deeds. That 
which makes us selfish and helps us to cling to our 
lower self is degrading and wicked; that which leads 
us towards unselfishness is elevating and virtuous. 
That which prevents us from realizing the oneness of 
Spirit is wrong; that which opens our spiritual eyes 
and helps us to see that Divinity is expressing itself 
through the forms of lower animals, and makes us 
love them as we love our own Self, is godly and 
divine. 

Every kind of food which we take into our bodies 
produces changes in our system, both physical and 
mental. Those who have carefully examined the 
changes that are produced in their minds by meat diet 
and who have struggled for self-control, will find it 
extremely difficult to govern animal passions, violent 
nature and restless condition of mind without giving 
up animal food. Thus, looking at the food question 
from various standpoints, a Hindu is a vegetarian and 
cannot advocate the eating of animal flesh. 



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